Ethylene is known to be polymerizable with many comonomers to form polyethylene copolymers of many different types ranging from hard impact resistant plastics and thermoplastics, to soft elastic films, to hard, rubbery elastomeric tires and the like. Polyethylene can also be blended with other polyolefins to optimize properties.
Ethylene copolymers are also useful as components in adhesives; in particular they can be used in hot melt adhesive compositions, and the like. Typically, tackifiers are added to these ethylene copolymers to give them their adhesive qualities. The strength of the adhesive bond is generally dependent upon the base copolymer and the tackifier used. For example, an ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer(EVA) blended with a typical non-polar tackifier generally has poor bond strength in comparison with a similar formulation where the EVA was blended with a polar tackifier. Thus, it would be desirable to develop a modifier that when added would increase the bond strength of EVAs blended with non-polar tackifiers as well as increasing the bond strength of EVAs bonded with polar tackifiers.